Gudzic: Calling for "Greater Albania" is playing with fire; any change of borders leads to a new Balkan war

Historian Aleksandar Gudzic has deemed the idea of promoting "Greater Albania" as dangerous, emphasizing that any attempt to change borders would lead to conflict.

Commenting on images from Pristina where some members of the Kosovo Security Force wore emblems of the "Greater Albania" yesterday, Aleksandar Gudzic told Kosovo Online that the KSF, as well as those leading them, were playing with fire, explaining that any change of borders in the Balkans implied a new Balkan war.

"Given that the idea of 'Greater Albania', or this 'Greater Albania', would encompass parts of Serbia, namely Kosovo and Metohija, parts of Montenegro, Macedonia, and parts of Greece, any potential border change and the creation of 'Greater Albania' would lead to a new conflict. How realistic is this idea, if you ask me? Well, I think it's not realistic. I believe that in the future, we are facing a German concept from the 1960s, the creation of multiple Albanian states, mutually divided, and that is somewhere the reality in the future", Gudzic assessed.

He emphasizes that on the Day of the Albanian flag in Kosovo, Albanians' national feelings are more pronounced.

"Pan-Albanism is something that has been going on for almost a century, and I understand that because on that day, Albanians' national feelings are more pronounced, hence the need to emphasize that Albanian national identity and the symbols of Albanian nationalism", Gudzic says.

He points out that pan-Albanism, all Albanians in one state, the "natural Albania", is the dominant political narrative of extremist Albanian circles.

"This implies seizing parts of the territories of neighboring countries. In that context, all these provocations should be viewed. And if you want, Albanians, in the last two centuries, a century and a half, since 1878 when the Prizren League convened and the period of the Albanian national revival, have shown themselves incapable of creating a state according to their standards. They always rely on great powers and are always an instrument in the hands of great powers, reaching for territories that are not theirs", Gudzic concluded.